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Destination: Morro Strand State Beach Park California has a lot to offer an adventurous Airstream-er so places like the Central Coast often are overshadowed by the more glamorous Northern California spots (Napa, San Francisco) and Southern California locales (Los Angeles, San Diego).  But we really enjoy the Central Coast because of it’s beauty and the fact that it’s usually less populated than other California coastal areas.   About 3 hours south of our San Jose Airstream garage off the 101 is the small town of Morro Bay, so named because of the large Morro Rock island that sits just off-shore.  There are several RV parks to chose from in Morro Bay, but we went with Morro Strand State Beach Park because of it’s location right next to the beach.  Unlike most state beach parks, Morro Strand has sites with full hook-ups (water, sewer, power), which makes it one of the best beach parks we’ve stayed at.  To get to this one (and don’t mistake it with Morro Bay State Park), take the Yerba Buena Street entrance.  And when leaving Morro Strand State Beach Park we recommend not going on Old Creek Road (if Google/Apple maps decides to route you that way) because it is an old, bumpy and twisty road.   We chose a standard (non hook-up) site since we were only there for a couple days and we wanted the primo spot where the beach access path comes right up to your front door.  Also these premium dry-camping spots are a bit easier to reverse into since it’s just a matter of parallel parking your trailer (which is great for newbie Airstream renters).  The standard sites also come with fire rings while the hook-up sites do not.   If you want to spend some quality time with a beautiful California beach, this state park is a must. There’s miles and miles of uninterrupted beach estate, which is great for beach jogs, fishing, and surfing.  Unfortunately dogs are not allowed on the beach because it is also a bird sanctuary (but dogs are allowed within the beach park).   The picture below is a view of Morro Rock from the Morro Strand State Beach Park.   Another wonderful thing about Morro Bay, a small town with a still active fishing industry, is all the delicious fresh seafood available!  There are a lot of great restaurants to choose from but one of our favorites was Giovanni’s Fish Market.  They are known for their fish and chips served from their side window, which can get quite popular during peak times.  Luckily we were there on a weekday and there was no wait (but if you’re looking at an hour+ wait I’m not sure the fish and chips are that worth it).  Their fresh local oysters were also delicious!  And one of the best parts was enjoying our meal while watching all the boats go in and out of the harbor and around Morro Rock.   If you don’t feel like waiting for food at the takeout window, still take the time to go inside their fish market where they sell fresh seafood along with in-house smoked fish, which was really delicious and affordable.   There’s also a lot of other highly rated seafood restaurants including The Galley Seafood Bar & Grill and Tognazzini’s Dockside Too.  The town itself doesn’t have a lot of things to do, but there are places you can rent boats or kayaks.   Also if you are interested, Hearst Castle at San Simeon is only a 30 minute drive away.  Since landslides on HWY 1 have blocked access to Hearst Castle from the north it is only accessible from the south (like Morro Bay).  We didn’t have a chance to visit, though I have it on my agenda for next time.   So if you’re looking for a beautiful beach spot that’s an easy drive from San Jose, I can’t recommend Morro Strand State Beach Park enough.  Morro Bay is a wonderful little beach/fishing town with a lot to offer!

Destination: Malibu, California Malibu Beach RV Park has got to be one of the prettiest full hook-up RV parks that’s near a major city.  It’s definitely one of our favorites, not only for the ocean views but also for it’s location within the exclusive and upscale town of Malibu.  It’s also only 30 minutes away from West LA and about an hour from downtown LA, making day trips into LA an easy reality (as long as you can avoid rush hour as much as possible).  If you’re looking for some beach time R&R but still want to experience a bit of city life, than this is a must-stay RV park! Getting There From our San Jose garage, Malibu Beach RV Park is about a 5.5 hour drive and thus drivable in one day (though I recommend requesting an early pick-up of noon when making your reservation to ensure you make it to Malibu before sunset).  However, if you want to break up the drive, Morro Bay or Pismo Beach are great locations to stop at the first night. Glamping at Malibu Beach RV Park This year around RV park has full hook-ups so you are truly glamping in all sense of the word.  If you want to save some dollars and don’t mind dumping at the end of your trip at their conveniently located dump station, then you can “rough it” with just a water and electrical hook-up.  Or if you want the full “small apartment living” lifestyle then you can pay the premium for a full hook-up with ocean views.  Rates range from $90-$220 during peak weekend summer season and less for weekdays or during the off-season.  See all rates here.  We definitely recommend making reservations well in advance since this is quite a popular destination. What to do there Well first thing’s first, you have to go to the beach!  It’s Malibu! There’s one that’s within walking distance from the RV park and can be seen by the ocean view RV spots.  If you don’t mind driving a bit, there are also other breathtaking state beach parks like Point Dume State Beach Reserve and El Matador State Beach. But after you tire of the sun, sand and waves there’s still a lot to do in Malibu.  We checked out the Malibu pier at sunset and had a great time taking in views, watching the fishermen, looking into the shops and ogling the menu at Malibu Farms.  I would also recommend making reservations to visit the Getty Villa to take in some ancient artifacts, art and some gorgeous architecture. If you prefer hiking there’s Topanga State Park and Malibu Creek State Park. Like I mentioned earlier, Santa Monica and Venice Beach are about a 30 minute drive south.  There are plenty of places to eat and shop there including the 4th Street Promenade in Santa Monica, or the Venice boardwalk or Abbot Kinney in Venice.  For our own trip we decided to make a day trip into downtown LA since it’s been awhile since we’ve been there.  We stopped by the Broad Museum (free entry!) and ate our way through the Grand Central Market.  We also love stopping by K-town and eating some of the best Korean food this country has to offer.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to LA! Where to go next Malibu RV Beach Park is the best stop for those doing the California Coastal tour.  Go further south to San Diego (a 2.5 hour drive) or head north to Santa Barbara (1.5 hours), where we loved staying at Rincon Parkway and Jalama Beach.  If you’re done with the beach scene then head east to Joshua Tree (3 hours) for some desert scenes.  Or head northeast to Paso Robles (3.5 hours) for some great wine tasting.

Destination: Joshua Tree National Park If Yosemite National Park is the park to go to in Northern California, then Joshua Tree National Park is the must see park in Southern California.  True, it has some competition from Death Valley National Park, but Joshua Tree has a landscape and beauty that’s all its own.  Plus you don’t want to miss the very unique Joshua Tree for which the park is named. Getting There Since Joshua Tree National park is an almost 8-hour drive from our shop in San Jose, we suggest splitting the drive across 2 days with a pit stop on the first day at Bakersfield.  Bakersfield is about a 4 hour drive from San Jose, and that is probably the max amount of hours you want to tow, especially if it’s your first time towing an Airstream.  We stayed at Bakersfield River Run RV park, which is your standard suburban RV park with full hook-ups.  Nothing particularly exciting about this RV park, but at least you can take long hot showers, send some last minute emails, unhitch to get gas in the truck, and organize your Airstream in preparation for some dry-camping at Joshua Tree. From Bakersfield to Joshua Tree it’s another 4 hours or so.  We recommend not taking I-5 that goes through LA since driving a trailer through LA traffic is not fun and either routes through Victorville or Barstow would probably be better. Glamping at Joshua Tree There are multiple campgrounds at Joshua Tree, with 4 of them available for reservations.  We highly recommend making reservations ahead of time since the number of RV spots are limited per campground and that’s especially true if you are renting one of our larger Airstreams (25′ or longer).  Joshua Tree is also a very popular national park and thus reservations and camping spots will fill up fast.  Only two of the campgrounds, Black Rock and Cottonwood, have dumping stations and water refill stations, which is convenient if you plan to stay for awhile or end up not rationing your water well.  However, if you’re feeling confident in your water conservation skills then Jumbo Rocks (pictured below) is also a great campground and quite unique too due to the massive boulders that provide shade around the campsite.  But you can’t go wrong with any of the campgrounds at Joshua tree!    There are also multiple private RV parks outside of the national park if you can’t get a reservation or rather have some hook-ups.  And lastly, boondocking or dispersed camping is a possibility on BLM land outside of the national park, however we highly advise against doing it since you risk damaging the Airstream by driving over the unpaved and rugged land.  If you are an experienced tower and would like to try it, just please let us know ahead of time so that we may advise you on the best way to boondock. What to do there Like every national park, there are a multitude of things to do at Joshua Tree.  Our favorite activity is hiking, and there are a plethora of hikes available in this large national park.  One of our favorites was Cottonwood Springs (pictured below), where the palms in this desert oasis reach gargantuan heights. We also visited Skull Rock and Jumbo Rocks campground.  And we also drove up to Keys View to take in the sights (pictured below). There are so many things to do and places to visit within Joshua Tree, unique because it is the meeting point of 2 distinct desert biomes.  And it really is the perfect place to take the Airstream road trip you’ve been dreaming of!

Destination: Furnace Creek Campground, Death Valley National Park On my last post I talked about Yosemite, but this week we’re looking at a very different kind of national park, Death Valley.  Death Valley is hottest, driest and lowest national park in the U.S. and sounds grim and uninviting.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, Death Valley National Park is probably one of my top favorite national parks because of the beautiful desert landscapes as well as all the historical exhibits of the Old West that can be found there.  In fact, there’s so much to do and see there that I would love to take another Airstream road trip out there some day. Getting There From our garage in San Jose, Death Valley National Park is about an 8 hour drive.  So we suggest splitting the drive across 2 days with a pit stop on the first day at Bakersfield, which is what we did.  Bakersfield is about 4 hour drive from San Jose, and that is probably the max amount of hours you want to tow, especially if it’s your first time towing an Airstream.  We stayed at Bakersfield River Run RV park, which is your standard suburban RV park with full hook-ups.  Nothing particularly exciting about this RV park, but at least you can take long hot showers, send some last minute emails, unhitch to get gas in the truck, and organize your Airstream in preparation for some dry-camping at Death Valley.   From Bakersfield to Death Valley is another 4 hour drive, and we suggest taking the CA-58 to the US 395N and then down the 190E.  We recommend avoiding the 178E route from Bakersfield because the 190E west of Panamint Springs is very narrow and windy with a steep grade going down hill.  This is the link to our recommended route.   Glamping at Death Valley Death Valley has a lot of campsite options for RV’ers though most of the campsites cannot be reserved.  Here are all the campgrounds at Death Valley.  As you can see most campgrounds are only open Fall to Spring so as to avoid the the hottest times of the year.  We happened to go in October, and so we stayed at Furnace Creek, which is one of the few year-around campgrounds.  Furnace Creek is also the only campground with partial hook-ups with electric and water sources, but there are only 18 sites with hook-ups.  Furnace Creek is also the only campground that takes reservations.   However, there are so many other campsites that Death Valley is rarely booked to capacity so you will probably be fine on a first-come-first-serve basis.  It is also important to note that Texas Springs is the only campground that prohibits generators (and believe me you will probably want to rent one of our generators when glamping at Death Valley because it gets H-O-T!).  The main campgrounds also all have a dumping station (with access to water to refill your fresh water tanks), which you will want to take advantage of if Death Valley is just one of your stops on your Airstream road trip (if you’re only staying at Death Valley and coming back, then you don’t have to worry about it since dumping tanks is included in the trip price). What to do there Pictures above are of Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America.  From the parking lot, if you look up about 300 ft, you can see where they marked where sea level is on the rock face.  Badwater Basin itself is a salt flat that you can walk on and feel as if you’re on another planet.   Other spectacular sites are Zabriskie Point (pictured at the very top of the post and right below) where you can do a short hike and great for sunrises and sunsets, Dante’s View where you can see both the highest and lowest points of North America in one spot (on a clear day), and Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes where you feel like you’re somewhere in the Sahara.   Dante’s View: Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes: I also enjoyed the historical exhibits at Death Valley including the still running Furnace Creek Inn, built in 1927, which has that old-timey glamour.  I also enjoyed exploring the Harmony Borax Works, famous for the 20-mule team used to transport the borax.      We also took a 45 minute drive (from Furnace Creek campground) to Rhyolite, a ghost town just across the Cali-Nevada border.  I love a good Wild West ghost town and old Union Pacific Rail cars, so this trip was especially fun for me.      Things that we missed and are on our list for our next visit include Devil’s Gold Course and Artist’s Drive.  See the full list of must-see places here. Where to go next from Death Valley If you’re planning for an Airstream trip for about 4-5 days I recommend spending that time solely for Death Valley.  But if you plan to do a longer road trip then I recommend either going up the US-395 (which is gorgeous) and spending time at Alabama Hills, June Lake, going to Yosemite (through the east entrance, summer time only), or going up to Lake Tahoe (we loved Silver Lake) and cutting back through the mountains to come back to San Jose.  If you have another 4 days and want to see a very different but equally stunning national park, then Zion National Park is 4.5 hours away.  Or if you want to come back through Barstow, you can hit up King’s Canyon/Sequoia National Park and Yosemite (through the west entrance) before heading back to San Jose.

Destination: Dimond-O Campground, Yosemite National Park After our first Airstream trip to Yosemite Park, where we did some field research of the various RV parks and campgrounds off of Hwy 120 (read that post here), we decided that for our second visit to Yosemite we wanted to stay at Dimond-O campground.  We liked the fact that Dimond-O is the closest campsite outside of the national park and the campground itself feels well-space and not overly populated . Also we like to camp outside of the park, even though it takes about 45 minutes to drive from Dimond-O to the valley floor because we prefer not to take the Airstream down the narrow and winding roads within the park.  Not to say that getting to Dimond-O is a walk in the park.  There are spots where HWY 120 winds along a mountain edge but take it slow and easy and know those roads are meant for trailers and even big-rigs (just don’t go up the shortcut at Old Priest’s Grade, but rather stay on the 120).   Dimond-O campground also has some narrow spots and are surrounded by trees flanking the campground road so we advise all Airstream renters to be careful when driving around the campsite and to avoid as many tree branches as possible.  If you rent a 23′ Airstream or smaller it will be a tad easier since they are slightly narrower than the larger Airstreams.  But for a little bit of work, you get a beautiful glamping spot surrounded by trees with easy access to one of the most beautiful national parks in the U.S.   We parked our 28′ Airstream in campsite 23 (see the campsite map here).  If you are able to nab sites 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 or 25 your campsite will have access to the Tuolumne River, which is quite beautiful and tranquil (sorry the photo doesn’t do it justice).   The campground is very well-maintained with a fire ring, bench and bear bins.  There is no cell reception within the campground, however you can get cell signal at the near-by Rush Creek Lodge (which also has great indoor and outdoor lounge areas if you need to get some work done).  The lodge also has a small gift shop/market area if you are in need of some last minute provisions or if you would like to buy some ready-made sandwiches for your day trip to Yosemite.   So if you’re looking for a great campsite near Yosemite to dry-camp at, we can’t recommend Dimond-O enough!

Destination: Convict Lake Most people don’t have a lot of time to go to far and obscure destinations during their Airstream road trip.  But I would be remiss not to write about this beautiful lake destination located on the other side of the Sierra Nevadas on the east side of California.  As much as I like Lake Tahoe, Silver Lake and Lake Nacimiento, I think Convict Lake is by far the most gorgeous California lake I’ve ever laid eyes upon.  You can see the bottom of the lake since the waters are so clear and when the sun shines, the water reflects like blue crystals.  Also that mountain backdrop is just breathtaking.  Don’t let the name fool you, there is nothing austere, bleak or prison-like about this place.  In fact it’s more like a little piece of the Swiss Alps on the west coast. Getting There Convict Lake is quite far from our San Jose Airstream garage and thus we advise making a stop if you are planning to explore the beautiful and rugged east side of California.  The quickest route there, which is about a 6 hour drive, is through Yosemite National Park.  Getting to Yosemite is about a 4 hour drive and you can read all about our experiences with the glamping at Yosemite here and here.  Since the mountain roads through the national park is quite narrow and windy, we recommend this route only for those taking a 23′ Airstream or smaller and only during the summer months when the pass is open.  When we took this road trip to Convcit Lake we went down to Death Valley National Park first and then came up the I-395 to Convict Lake. Glamping at Convict Lake Convict Lake Campground, which is within walking distance to the lake, has 37 standard non-electric back-up sites for RVs of various lengths.  The spots can be a tad narrow so we recommend driving carefully around the campground and always having a spotter when backing up.  Since there are no water or electric hook-ups at the campsite you might want to rent one of our generators to comfortable dry-camp.  Since sites are limited we highly recommend making reservations here before your trip.  There is a dump station and water filling station that is easily accessible right outside the campground if you need to empty or refill tanks.  The campground itself is nicely arranged with some trees giving you privacy between sites. What To Do There Within walking distance to the campground is the Convict Lake Resort, which conveniently provides boat, kayak, and paddleboard rentals for a day out on the lake.  There are also a couple beautiful hikes around the lake for those who prefer to stay on land.  But Convict Lake is probably best known as a fishing destination for the avid fisherman.  Also for those who feel like eating something fancy for a change, the Convict Lake Resort has two fine dining restaurants: Restaurant at Convict Lake and Morrison’s Restaurant (name after the mountain peak surrounding the lake). Where To Go Next If you’re on a time constraint, the fastest way back to San Jose would be to go through Yosemite National Park again.  Or if you came up through Death Valley, going through Yosemite would be a nice roundtrip.  If you came up through Yosemite and want to go down to Death Valley I would advise caution for the inexperienced trailer driver because there’s a stretch of narrow mountain roads that can be quite nerve-racking (going up is no walk in the park either but it’s not nearly as scary as going down).  Lake Tahoe is about a three hour drive away if you want to continue the California mountain lake tour.   The campground has 110 sites, which are all first come first serve basis.  Sites 54-58 are popular spots because it’s a bit away from the rest of the campsites.  But we were in campsite 37 and still felt pretty secluded (see map at the bottom of the page here).  If not being able to make a reservation during peak season makes you nervous, then you can reserve sites at the neighboring Sunset Campground, which has 157 reservable sites open from May to September.  Both campgrounds are within King’s Canyon National Park and close to each other and Grant Grove Village where the Grant Grove Market and King’s Canyon Visitors Center are located.   The Grant Grove Market has groceries, beer/wine, firewood, and any other supplies you might have forgotten for your trip.  The Grant Grove Village also includes a restaurant and post office.  So you may be in a remote national park, but you’ll want for nothing! The best part of Azalea Campground is that it is within walking distance (0.8 miles or a 3 minute car ride) to the main attraction at King’s Canyon National Park: General Grant Grove, home to the General Grant Tree.  The General Grant Tree is the second largest tree in the world (we’ll get to the largest tree in a minute here) and is estimated to be 1,657 years old.  There are also several other hikes around General Grant Grove, which you can find listed here.   Another great thing about Azalea Campground is that it is only 40 minutes away from Sequoia National Park so you can visit 2 national parks in one day if you were so inclined (the entrance fee to Kings Canyon is also good for Sequioa National Park).   Sequoia National Park is home to the largest living tree in the world, the General Sherman tree.  Also in the area is the Lodgepole Visitor Center and the Giant Tree Museum.  There are also quite a few hiking trails in the area, that are listed here.   And if you wanted to make your Airstream road trip a National Parks tour, then the south entrance of Yosemite is about 2.5 hours away from King’s Canyon National Park.  There’s a lot of beauty on this side of California.   So if you’re

Destination: Azalea Campground, Kings Canyon National Park We love big trees.  That’s why Santa Cruz Redwoods RV Resort is one of our favorite local RV parks.  But a giant sequoia tree is the mother of all big trees.  They are the living dinosaurs of the plant world and something that everyone should see (or hug) once in their life.  Well we found the best campground for visiting these beautiful giants, Azalea Campground located in King’s Canyon National Park.  This year-around campground located in the national park is a little less than 4 hours away from our San Jose garage.  Since this is a campground there are no hook-ups so be prepared for some dry-camping.  There are dumping stations open during the summer months (though we don’t know how accessible they are since we went during the autumn).  Also there are some tight turns within the campground so we advise all Airstreamers to be extra careful when driving through the campground.   The campground has 110 sites, which are all first come first serve basis.  Sites 54-58 are popular spots because it’s a bit away from the rest of the campsites.  But we were in campsite 37 and still felt pretty secluded (see map at the bottom of the page here).  If not being able to make a reservation during peak season makes you nervous, then you can reserve sites at the neighboring Sunset Campground, which has 157 reservable sites open from May to September.  Both campgrounds are within King’s Canyon National Park and close to each other and Grant Grove Village where the Grant Grove Market and King’s Canyon Visitors Center are located.   The Grant Grove Market has groceries, beer/wine, firewood, and any other supplies you might have forgotten for your trip.  The Grant Grove Village also includes a restaurant and post office.  So you may be in a remote national park, but you’ll want for nothing! The best part of Azalea Campground is that it is within walking distance (0.8 miles or a 3 minute car ride) to the main attraction at King’s Canyon National Park: General Grant Grove, home to the General Grant Tree.  The General Grant Tree is the second largest tree in the world (we’ll get to the largest tree in a minute here) and is estimated to be 1,657 years old.  There are also several other hikes around General Grant Grove, which you can find listed here.   Another great thing about Azalea Campground is that it is only 40 minutes away from Sequoia National Park so you can visit 2 national parks in one day if you were so inclined (the entrance fee to Kings Canyon is also good for Sequioa National Park).   Sequoia National Park is home to the largest living tree in the world, the General Sherman tree.  Also in the area is the Lodgepole Visitor Center and the Giant Tree Museum.  There are also quite a few hiking trails in the area, that are listed here.   And if you wanted to make your Airstream road trip a National Parks tour, then the south entrance of Yosemite is about 2.5 hours away from King’s Canyon National Park.  There’s a lot of beauty on this side of California   So if you’re looking for some big beautiful trees or to check off some National Parks from your bucket list, then Azalea Campground is the place to go!

Burning Man Rental Packages Now Available There’s nothing quite like a beautiful silver Airstream shimmering in the open desert, am I right?  Well for those who want to rent an Airstream for Burning Man, an annual city built in the middle of the Nevada desert devoted to self-reliance and self-expression, you’ve come to the right place.  This year we are offering Airstream rental packages specifically for Burning Man (August 27- September 4, 2017). Now I’m sure you’ve noticed the pricing for these packages are nothing to sneeze at.  But that’s because having experienced Airstreams returning from Burning Man, we know that Playa dust is also nothing to sneeze at.  The bulk of the cost goes to the 10+ hours of preparing our Airstreams for Burning Man (including a full waxing of the exterior and the taping of all windows and vents) and the 30+ hours of cleaning required to fully remove Playa dust from every nook, cranny and compartment of the Airstream.  We also provide free grocery stocking, purchased by the customer through Instacart (ie have all the water you need for the week already stocked into your Airstream when you arrive) and free San Jose Airport pick-up and drop-off for out-of-town guests.  And of course we include all of our usual Elite RV amenities like a fully-stocked kitchen, all linens and towels, full propane tanks, and dumping of all tanks post-trip.  (For comparison, we’ve researched and have found that competitors like Cruise America rent their un-stocked and un-prepped class C RVs for $4500 for Burning Man, while Airstream2Go rents their Airstreams with tow vehicle for $12,000 for the week.)   We have also decided that we will not be doing Airstream deliveries to the Playa so all renters must tow their own Airstream to Burning Man.  We feel that since Burning Man is a community celebrating self-reliance, that guests going to the Playa should practice this Burning Man principle.  And if you want to practice towing before your drive to the Nevada desert, we will happily schedule a time to show you the basics and allow you to practice at our San Jose garage free of charge.  And of course all rentals are fully insured (which is included in the Burning Man package price).  Lastly if you don’t own a truck, we have partnered with our local Enterprise Commercial business and can arrange the rental for you.  We will also have the rental truck delivered and hitched up to the trailer ready to go on the day of pick-up.   So if you’re interested in renting an Airstream for Burning Man, you can start your reservation process on our Burning Man page here.

Another Epic Family Trip by Grace and Jason (3rd year in a row)! source We are so very lucky to have awesome adventurous Airstream renters who come back every year to take an annual road trip.  And one of our favorite families is Jason, Grace, Olivia, and Lucas.  They take some of the most spectacular pictures and they stay at the best RV parks (due to Jason’s diligent research skills). This year, their third annual trip, they went all the way to Utah and back, and boy did they take some stunning photos.  Go check out their website at GraceandJason.com to get some inspiration for your next Airstream road trip!

Airstream Reversing Tutorial We are excited to present our second how-to video, this time showing you the basics on reversing your trailer.  For our customers, we offer a free driving and reversing session before the start of your trip if you’re feeling extra stressed about this.  But this video tutorial will give you a great foundation  Stay tuned for Reversing Tutorial Part 2!